Did you know that Gogol himself spoke about how to cook the pickle? True, in his recipe it was not really about that dish. It tells about a pie, which includes pickles. That pickle that we know is hookah. Of course, now only fish soups are called so, which have a rather sour taste, but in the fifteenth century they already knew about such a dish and the secrets of its preparation. Do you know all about pickle?
Pickle feature
Before cooking pickle and picking recipes for it, it is worthwhile to find out how this soup is so different from the rest. First of all, pickle is a native Russian soup that has a huge number of variations.
The name of this dish comes from the word brine - a solution of salt or liquid that remains after pickling cucumbers or cabbage. It is curious that, in addition to pickles, the original recipe also uses brine.
If we talk about the last ingredient, then in Russia it was considered the highest skill not only to deliciously pickle vegetables or fruits, but also to make a tasty liquid, thanks to which the salting was a success. It was not poured anywhere, but, on the contrary, they could be added to the dish or served separately. The best was always cucumber pickle.
Pickle recipes can be found in the books of famous writers. Gogol was previously mentioned, who spoke of a slightly different dish. But there are those who mentioned the recipe for Kali itself. For example, Dahl noted how to cook pickle. He said that this soup was always cooked with caviar.
According to historical information, before pickles were part of the menu of expensive restaurants and were brought from somewhere in the direction of Greenland. Soup fell in love in Russia because of its fat content and the availability of ingredients.
About the composition
In the modern world, pickle is also prepared in Europe. True, duck broth, cream and ordinary fresh cucumbers are included there. So this dish looks like a real pickle solely by its name.
In addition to brine and pickles, many foods were added to the food. Some cooks made the soup exclusively vegetable, adding potatoes and carrots to it. There is evidence that there were those who prepared pickle with various herbs or cereals.
As a basis, they took everything they could get. Richer people cooked pickle on pork or beef meat. But more often used for bone broth or offal.
There is a place in the history of pickle and fish soup. Fish stock was not used from the word at all. But the fish itself was always taken in several varieties. A special chic was considered a pickle with salted fish.
The rules for the preparation of modern pickle
Of course, before people prepared from what they could. Now, at every step you can find supermarkets, shops and markets, where a fairly wide range of both meat and cereals is often presented. How much to cook pickle depends on the composition of the dish. So how do you choose the right ingredients for it?
Below you can find a fairly large number of recipes of different variation of the preparation of pickle. But if you want to make it your own way, remember a few perfect combinations:
- Kidneys and beef are best cooked with pearl barley.
- Duck or goose offal are supplemented with barley groats.
- Rice should be added only in tandem with chicken offal.
These three rules will help you independently create the perfect hodgepodge. The main and general rule that applies to all recipes is not to salt until fully cooked. Of course, you can cook pickle according to the classic recipe. How? more about that below.
Classic pickle with pearl barley
The most common version of this sour soup is pickle with pearl barley. For a rich taste you will need:
- 100 g of pearl barley.
- 4 medium potatoes.
- 3 liters of beef broth.
- Half a glass of cucumber pickle.
- Bulb.
- A little vegetable oil.
- Carrot.
- 4 pickles.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
The most difficult and main question is how much to cook barley for pickle. The answer is simple - just over half an hour. In this case, it is worth boiling barley directly in the broth, which must be prepared in advance.
While the barley is cooked, you can do passerovka onions and carrots. To do this, peel and chop the vegetables. There is no exact rule on how to do this, so it’s up to you. Sliced vegetables must be put on a hot pan with the oil already heated in it. The total cooking time is 10 minutes.
In the meantime, barley should be cooked. Potatoes diced or diced must be sent to the pot. Five minutes before it is ready, add the contents of the pan and cook for another five minutes.
Now that the soup is almost ready, it's time to pour the brine and add the cucumbers chopped into strips. The resulting soup must be thoroughly mixed and brought to a boil.
Before removing the pickle from the fire, you need to try it and, if necessary, add salt and pepper. As soon as the soup is poured into plates, it is better to add fresh herbs to it.
It is believed that such a pickle should be enough for at least 6 people. But this is not the only option on how to cook pickle with pearl barley and pickles.
Petersburg pickle
It is believed that this recipe was invented in the cultural capital, but how reliable this information is is unknown. At the heart of this soup can even be ordinary water, but it is better to boil 1.5 liters of broth.
Before you prepare the pickle, make sure that you have:
- 2 tomatoes or a tablespoon of tomato paste.
- A glass of barley.
- Two medium pickles.
- Parsley root.
- One carrot.
- One onion.
- Half a glass of cucumber pickle.
- Two tablespoons of butter.
- Six potatoes.
In this case, start cooking the pickle with pearl barley and cucumbers with cereals. It must be poured with boiling water and put on fire. As soon as it becomes soft, the broth needs to be drained and put the porridge to the side, and let the pickles into the broth.
Chopped potatoes must be added to the broth after 15 minutes of boiling with cereal. This is necessary in order for the barley to boil enough.
Meanwhile, fry the tomatoes, carrots, onions and roots in oil. Add passivated vegetables to the soup five minutes after the potato.
A minute before the end of cooking, pour the brine into the soup and put the cucumbers. Add salt and serve to the table, if desired.
Nevertheless, the pickle is not always cooked with pearl barley. There are many other interesting options. Here, for example, is another option. Cook the pickle with pickles according to the recipe, which we will consider below, in this case we will be slightly different.
Vegetarian pickle
Before cooking pickle with cucumbers and without meat, you need to get a five-liter pan. 4 liters of water are poured into it. There will be a lot of pickle, so this dish is perfect for hosting guests.
Ingredients:
- 3 pickled cucumbers.
- 0.5 cup barley groats.
- 2 bay leaves.
- 8 potatoes.
- 1 large tomato.
- 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.
- 2 carrots.
- 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- 1 teaspoon of salt.
- Spices to taste.
Cook the washed cereals over low heat for 20 minutes, regularly removing the foam. And while the porridge is cooked, you need to chop the potatoes and cucumbers, and grate the carrots.
Spices should be slightly fried in oil and immediately add carrots and potatoes. Stir vegetables carefully, avoiding burning. The culmination of Passerovka will be cucumbers and tomato paste. All that fell into the pan should be stewed for about three minutes.
Now, finely chopped tomatoes, vegetables and salt should be sent to a common pan with cereal. Let everything boil for at least 15 minutes. Everything, a delicious lunch is ready!
Kidney pickle
And if we cook pickle with pearl barley, and the recipe includes beef kidneys? Then you need to make a special emphasis on the broth. How to make it tasty?
To do this, it is important to remove fat from the kidneys along with the film. If this is not done, the broth will have an unpleasant color and aroma. Moreover, before setting off for fire, chopped kidneys must stand in cold water for several hours.
But such a soaking is not enough. It is necessary to drain the water and fill the kidneys with fresh cold water, send to boil for 15 minutes. The resulting liquid will look a little like a broth. It must be disposed of. It is impossible to eat such food.
The boiled kidneys must be washed and again put in a pan with cold water. Now they have to cook for several hours over low heat in order to become soft and tasty. The broth, in which these same kidneys will cook, can not be drained. This is the basis for the future pickle. True, first you need to strain it to get rid of garbage.
The composition of this pickle includes a number of products:
- 2-3 pickles.
- 2 onion heads.
- 1 egg
- 1 carrot.
- A glass of cream or milk.
- 2 tablespoons of butter.
From greens, it is recommended to take:
- 2 celery roots.
- 4 parsley roots.
- 80 grams of salad.
- 80 grams of sorrel.
- 120 grams of parsnip root.
All these ingredients are focused on 2 liters of broth. While it is boiling with chopped kidneys, put oil on a heated pan, in which to send all the greens (except lettuce and sorrel), carrots and onions. Everything should be finely chopped, and in a pan quality passaged.
In the meantime, you need to let the cucumbers into the broth and let it boil for about a minute. Next, vegetables from the pan and salt are added to the boiling broth. The resulting pickle is allowed to boil for 5-10 minutes.
At the very end, put chopped sorrel and salad. And if you want to add density, then mix the egg and cream and pour into a pan. All this should be cooked until fully cooked, and served with the addition of fresh herbs.
Thick rice soup
Cooking pickle according to the recipe below is recommended for those who do not like barley. In order for the taste to be quite saturated, for the broth it is necessary to take a little more than half a kilogram of chicken and cook in a pan until foam is formed. As soon as it appears it needs to be removed, and in the pan put the peeled whole onion, a few peas of black pepper and a bay leaf. Such a broth cannot be cooked over high heat, so as not to spoil the taste of both the liquid itself and the meat that is in it, which later also goes to the pickle.
While the broth is being prepared, you can chop 4 pickles and onions, which should be fried in a pan with vegetable oil. When the onion becomes golden in color, add 3 tablespoons of tomato paste to the passivation and let the vegetables stew for a couple of minutes.
Remove the onion from the broth and add a glass of washed rice. Putting more is not worth it, as rice will increase during cooking.
After three minutes, three cubed potatoes and the contents of the pan, as well as meat, are sent to the rice. This is almost a finished dish. He needs to stand on the fire for another 15-20 minutes and serve with sour cream and herbs.
Pickle with mushrooms and pearl barley
Some, having studied how to cook pickle with pearl barley, choose the option with mushrooms. This recipe is quite simple, and the result is able to hit even a gourmet.
For six servings take:
- 300 grams of champignons.
- 3 medium pickles.
- 1 onion.
- 2 potatoes.
- A third cup of barley.
- 1 carrot.
- 2 tablespoons of butter.
- 2 bay leaves.
- 1 tablespoon of dry dill.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
The night before you cook the pickle with pearl barley, the latter must be soaked in cold water. During the night, the cereal is saturated with water and quickly boiled. To do this, in the morning, grits are sent to 1.5 liters of water and put on a slow fire. Some, by the way, put a tablespoon of butter to speed up the result.
Onions and mushrooms are usually finely chopped and fried in butter. And potatoes, carrots and cucumbers are simply cut into cubes. All but cucumbers are put in a pan with pearl barley after half an hour of active boiling, not forgetting to salt and pepper.
Cucumbers are laid 10 minutes after the vegetables. So they will retain their structure, but will give the brine to the broth as much as possible. All together should boil no more than 5 minutes. Such pickle is also served with sour cream.
Pickle with cabbage
It is believed that our grandmothers cooked this soup differently. But how to cook pickle with cucumbers and cabbage? It is worth noting that, unlike cucumbers, cabbage must be fresh. So what and how much should be put in such a pickle?
- 500 grams of beef with bones.
- 2-3 pickles.
- 1 onion.
- 10 potatoes.
- Half a glass of sour cream.
- A quarter of a cabbage.
- 1 carrot.
- 3.5 liters of water.
- 1 parsley root
- Spices to taste.
From the meat, as before, prepare the broth. When it is ready, it is salted and sent to the pan shredded cabbage. Cook everything for 15 minutes with the lid open.
Later add diced potatoes and fried onions with carrots into cubes. All must be cooked until cooked.
In the meantime, we clear the cucumbers from the skins and seeds. Cut what is left and add at the very end, together with spices. If the pickle is not acidic enough, pour the pickle from the cucumbers into it.
Fish recipe
Such a pickle is called Novotroitsky. During cooking, it is important to consider the details, as the soup is easy to spoil. Therefore, we consider step by step how to cook pickle. The recipe in this case involves the presence of fish in the ingredients.
First of all, you need to collect a complete package of necessary products:
- 400 grams of zander.
- 400 grams of salted fish (e.g. sturgeon or beluga).
- 15 brushes.
- 400 grams of fresh or freshly frozen oily fish.
- 14 crayfish.
- 5 pickles.
- 2 tomatoes.
- Cucumber pickle to taste.
- 2 tablespoons of flour.
- Parsley and dill.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
1. First of all, you need gauze. In it you need to put the brushes and, having tied, send to cook. It is interesting that after boiling you need to drop dill with parsley and cook the ear.
2. From the resulting soup, you must remove the ruff and put large fish.
3. After boiling everything, put the fish in salty cold water, and the resulting broth is set aside. Salted fish, by the way, is also recommended to cook, but in a different pan.
4. In a dry saucepan, it is important to fry the flour and add hot brine. After boiling, the broth is sent there and boiled again.
5. Boiled fish must be steamed with tomato and sent to a boiling broth. Put the crayfish necks and cucumbers there.
6. Boil for a minute, and the pickle on the fish is ready.
In fact, these are far from all the recipes that can be found on the Internet. Experiment and amaze your loved ones with such an original soup as pickle!